What Growth Curves Mean for Businesses
Now, you know the basics of calculating a growth curve. But that brings us to another big question: how does measuring growth like this help your company?
It all goes back to a phrase you've heard your whole life: "timing is everything." Sometimes, you may develop a great product and then it's a flop when you unveil it. However, that may have less to do with the quality of the product than with your own particular timing.
By calculating growth curves over a long enough time frame, you can make some surprising discoveries. For example, maybe the products you unveil ahead of Christmas always sell better than the products you unveil early in the new year. Or maybe your social media campaigns are a consistent hit year-round while the traditional media marketing campaigns only work in certain months.
Just think of these growth calculations as one more bit of analytic data that helps inform how you grow your company. And once you understand the basics of calculating startup growth, you can master the next challenge: nurturing and maintaining that growth.
Your Growth Foundation
Unsurprisingly, the goal for every business, from humble startups to giant corporations, is to continue growing the business. But it is difficult to continue growing if a company doesn't have a proper growth foundation.
The primary cornerstone of a good growth foundation is, of course, a good product. If you create an innovative product with a good value proposition, then you create the perception that this is a "must-have" product. And your most loyal customers will become brand ambassadors that encourage more people to try your product out.
Of course, whenever one company creates a great product, other companies try to copy their success. This is why it's important to stay ahead of your competition and continue introducing innovative new products.
And in terms of product marketing, you should always focus on conversions. The more you can optimise the conversion process, the more you can grow your brand.
How to Nurture the Growth of Startups
If you calculate the growth curve and realise your company is growing at a rapid pace, the next question is simple. What are you going to do to keep the momentum going?
The "rookie mistake" many startups make at this point is to make an external marketing hire. The assumption is simple: if you find the right marketing guru, they can turn this temporary growth spurt into a reliable expansion of your brand.
Why is this a mistake? First of all, if you bring in someone like a VP of marketing, they may be operating with incomplete data. In other words, what has driven growth in the last few months may or may not be driving growth in the next few months.
Second of all, your startup may not be able to afford the salary that a good VP commands. You're actually far better off investing the time, money, and other resources into experimenting with different products, marketing campaigns, and so on. By discovering what your primary growth drivers are, you can nurture that growth well into the future.
